AFX European Focus | March 30, 2004
The EU lifted a blanket ban on poultry imports from the US and Canada imposed over bird flu scares.
EU health experts agreed to a proposal from the European Commission to limit the bans only to the areas affected by the outbreaks -- Texas for the United States and the western province of British Columbia for Canada.
In a statement, EU health commissioner David Byrne said US and Canadian authorities had assured the bloc that they had the outbreaks under control.
"It is now timely to lift most of the import restrictions as all necessary information provided by the two countries indicate that the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks in the two countries have been confined to a limited area," he said.AFX European Focus:
